HATS AND ROYAL WEDDING

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Britain’s love of hats from the royal family to the populace has lasted for centuries, a tradition that will be revealed at Prince William’s and Kate Middleton’s April 29 wedding.

Many gamblers are betting on Queen Elizabeth II’s hat color, the designer of the queen’s honeymoon hat.

Hicks, the hat designer who made hats for the Queen, her mother and Princess Diana, told the Associated Press: “We are British-the hat represents us.” Choosing the right hat is important for the person who wears it, but it is also important for the designer. “

Many accounts explain why Britain has become a country full of crazy hats compared to other European countries. The Crazy Hatter is a character in the movie “sleepwalking in Wonderland,” based on a number of hat designers who have suffered from nerve damage as they inhale mercury for the treatment of animal fur.

Britain’s poor climate could cause this national obsession with hats, but experts say the royal family is causing the storm to continue.

Victoria and Albert Museum 2009 hat exhibition director Carlin said: “the hat has long been symbolic status.” Until the 1950s, unless a woman wore a hat and gloves, she was even considered inappropriately dressed. “the hat show went on display in Australia and will be shown in the United States in September.

Carlin says the tumult of the 1960s and the variety of hairstyles-and the limited space available for modern cars-have led to a gradual decline in global hat sales.

Many blame the accelerated destruction of the hat on John F. Kennedy, the first unhat-wearing American president. However. In Britain, the tradition of wearing a hat remains firm.

Royalty hats have long appeared in paintings or photographs-Queen Elizabeth’s mother has a crush on hats made by wavy feathers, and her daughter has grown to wear a similar style. The prime minister and MPs also wore hats and tuxedos and appeared at Oxford or Cambridge.

When the couple announced their engagement last November, some women began placing orders, the designers said. Designers recommend customizing traditional hats, focusing on their own costumes, regardless of the price and not stealing the bride or royal family.

Some designers, like Tracy’s, may be selling for more than 600 pounds or $1,000. Tracy made two hats when Duchess Conwar married Prince Charles in 2005, and Sarah Jessica Pike’s multiple hats in Lust City, also designed by Trish.

At the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, two things stuck out. Literally. The fascinators of princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.Sure, they were gigantic and pretty outlandish, but to be fair, the princesses were just following the dress code.And on the wedding invitations to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, you’ll notice the same thing.You got to wear a hat .Since the sixties, formal hats have sort of faded out of fashion.So how come British royals always seem to be wearing them?

Hats have always served multiple functions.They protect us from the cold and the Sun, they’re symbols of religion or trade or military station.Or in the case of the top hat, they can show how stylish you are.There’s a really popular story that the first time a guy wore a top hat in London,it caused such a stir that a woman fainted, dogs yelped, and a kid broke his arm in a mob.This probably didn’t happen.But it is true that top hats weren’t really a thing in the UK until the early 19th century.

Beau Brummell, a fashion-forward dandy, introduced them to his friend and future king, George IV, and top hats officially received royal approval. Brummell was a big hat guy and he’s also responsible for the decadent fashions you see at places like this.That’s the Royal Ascot, the biggest race of the London social season.In 1807, it introduced the Gold Cup, a shorter race that brought larger crowds.It was around this time that Brummell introduced a strict dress code for the race, so that even those from lower social classes looked the part.Including Eliza Doolittle.Come on. Come on Dover. Come on Dover! Move your bloomin’ arse!I suppose historically people have worn hats to the, to the races again, because of that formality.

Nowadays, you know, women like to dress up.So if they’re going to the races it’s a fantastic excuse to to wear a hat.That’s Rachel Trevor Morgan who’s made more than 80 hats for Queen Elizabeth II, including those she’s worn to Royal Ascot. Brummell’s dress code, now known as “Morning Dress,” was the direct inspiration for races like this one.And it also became the de facto style of dress for all high society events held in the daytime.Meanwhile Beret hat ebbed and flowed according to fashion trends at court.Bonnets in the early Victorian period, followed by tall ornamental hats, and then elaborate Edwardian creations with enormous brims.

At the end of the 19th century, we had women wearing hats all the time.They’d always go out wearing a hat .After World War II, the traditional social season began to decline, as aristocrats abandoned their London homes.But morning dress still remained ,most notably at horse races and weddings.

I think there was a definite shift in hat wearing in the 1960s and I suppose it’s because fashions became a bit more casual.I think the young were experimenting with more exciting hairdos you know, you had beehive haircuts and people piling their hair up and then really short sharp cuts and somehow it was left to the older generation to carry on that hat wearing, I think hats were still, of course, required at the fanciest events for the fanciest people,which is why hats tend to peak in popularity around the same time as royals do.When Kate and William got married there was definitely an upsurge in hat wearing.People looked at everybody attending the service and all the wonderful creations they had and they wanted a part of that.

And when you think in the 1980s and we had Princess Diana, who always looked so beautiful and always wore hats.And think of the Queen. She’s a great hat wearer, so I, you know, I think it really does affect people.And that’s maybe the real reason why we associate British Royals with hats.Whenever we see them, it’s likely because there’s a big event going on and for Royals, big events mean hats.People might want to wear a hat to stand out and because they’re quite an extrovert,or they might want to wear a hat in order to sort of slightly hide behind. And there are those people who’ve never worn hats and feel very awkward about the whole thing, but it’s really satisfying when people come back saying, “that was fantastic, I really enjoyed it and had a great, positive experience.”

So you can read quite a lot into people and it’s getting to know where their comfort zone is.
But they’re a great sort of extension of people’s characters I think.

As the sporting summer gets under way – from England’s Royal Ascot to polo in the Hamptons – a growing number of international customers, particularly from the US, are approaching British hatters.“Americans are especially interested in hats since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011, and since seeing the younger royals wear hats so frequently,” says Gina Foster, a London-based milliner who designed the red pillbox hat worn by the duchess during their recent state visit to New Zealand. “I don’t think hats ever went out of fashion, but the audience is much broader now.”

Foster, 38, who studied under Philip Treacy, has been making hats for 12 years. Her international clients come from the US, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. She has also designed a collection of five hats for the 2014 racing season that were inspired by the interior of London’s Goring Hotel. “Hats are part of English dress and culture, but we have an international audience that is seduced by glamour – and there is nothing more glamorous than a hat,” says Foster’s mentor Philip Treacy, whose numerous customers have included the late style-setter Isabella Blow, Lady Gaga and Madonna. (He also designed the much mocked hat worn by Princess Beatrice at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding; her sister Eugenie sported a less controversial Treacy design.)

“When I started at the Royal College of Art, they thought hats were for old ladies, but I thought that was completely insane,” says Treacy. Now he points to a worldwide audience that is “open to seeing hats in a new way”.

Kelly Christy is an American milliner whose work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York and has designed for Diane von Furstenberg and Cynthia Rowley. Christy says hats – both classic, such as the fedora, as well as more whimsical headpieces – are back as a chic and affordable accessory after the recent downturn. “Now everyone wears them – actors, musicians, models; they complete a fashion look and are more mainstream than ever.”

Ellen Goldstein, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, would agree: “Hats are a way of easing into a fashion statement.” She notes that more Americans are wearing hats to the races and to weddings, as well as in everyday wear, with men in particular routinely wearing baseball caps and short-brimmed fedoras.

Gabriela Ligenza, another London-based hat designer (see “Boffin tops” below), says Britain’s image as a hat-wearing nation had remained strong, thanks to the influence of figures such as Isabella Blow. “British milliners are slightly quirkier and more daring, but without becoming ridiculous,” she notes.The message, reinforced by such style icons and prolific hat-wearers as Daphne Guinness, Anna Dello Russo and Paloma Faith, who has worn Ligenza’s hats, is that “your outfit really isn’t quite finished without a hat”.What’s more, as Ligenza points out, fascinators are no longer allowed in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, which has stimulated demand for contemporary designs.

Piers Atkinson, also based in London designs fun, arty hats in the shape of cream slices and cherries for customers in Melbourne, Dubai and Britain. He believes there has never been a better time for talented young designers, and points to the British Fashion Council’s “Headonism” showcase, an initiative to promote young milliners that runs during London Fashion Week in September.Also showing at Headonism will be Awon Golding, who grew up in England, Hong Kong and India. This year her designs include eye-catching pieces for Ascot such as one in the shape of an ice-cream cone, complete with scoops of soft ostrich feather pom-poms.